Rockland Man Accused of Stealing $3.4M from Retirement, Health Benefit Fund

PEARL RIVER, NY — A Tappan resident has been indicted in a case involving millions of dollars in a health and retirement benefit fund that were siphoned off to pay phony consultant fees.

Enrico Rubano, also known as Rick, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, as is his alleged co-conspirator, Shivanand Maharaj of Cresskill, New Jersey. They were arrested Thursday.

“As alleged, Enrico Rubano used his position as the co-head of IT for a health and retirement benefit fund to perpetrate a scheme to falsely invoice millions of dollars from the fund for consulting work never actually performed," said Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in the announcement. "Rubano allegedly had the fund make payments based on hundreds of fake invoices to Shivanand Maharaj’s company, not for IT work actually done by that company, but really in exchange for alleged kickback payments to Rubano. Money that should have gone to help pay retirement and health care benefits were instead allegedly diverted to Rubano and Maharaj.”

According to Bharara's announcement:

From 2008 through October 2015, Rubano was the co-head of information technology for the Funds and had the authority to approve the payment of invoices from third-party vendors. Beginning in 2009, and continuing through 2015, RUBANO, MAHARAJ, and others devised a scheme in which companies they owned or controlled submitted to the Funds invoices for millions of dollars in information technology services that were never performed or that had, in fact, been performed by employees of the Funds or other vendors. RUBANO, in his position as co-head of information technology, approved these fraudulent invoices, and received kickbacks from MAHARAJ and other co-conspirators. Between 2009 and 2015, RUBANO, MAHARAJ, and their co-conspirators falsely billed and fraudulently received from the Funds at least approximately $3.4 million.

RUBANO, 48, of Tappan, New York, and MAHARAJ, 36, of Cresskill, New Jersey, were arrested this morning in Tappan, New York, and Cresskill, New Jersey, respectively. RUBANO and MAHARAJ are each charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Bharara praised the efforts of the USPIS in this investigation. He added that the investigation is continuing.

This case is being handled by the Office’s General Crimes Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew Podolsky and Jacob Warren are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

“These defendants devised a scheme to falsely bill their client for work that was never performed by allegedly using an ‘inside’ employee to approve bogus invoices," USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Philip R. Bartlett said. "They went one step too far when they decided to use the US Mail to facilitate their criminal misdeeds. Postal Inspectors will resolutely pursue fraudsters who use the U.S. mail to facilitate fraud schemes.”